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On Jan. 24, the federal conflict of interest and ethics commissioner issued a compliance order to Oshawa MP Colin Carrie. According to the order, in April Mr. Carrie wrote to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in support of Durham Radio Inc.'s application for a broadcasting license for a new Toronto FM station.

The ethics commissioner said the letter was improper and ordered Mr. Carrie, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of health, to refrain from writing similar letters in the future without approval from the office of the ethics commissioner.

On Friday, Mr. Carrie issued a statement in response to the order.

"Canadians expect their elected members of Parliament to represent their interests and to exercise any other public office in the broader public interest," he wrote in an e-mail statement. "My intention was to write in my capacity as a member of Parliament, as I believed I was permitted to do by the Conflict of Interest Act."

According to the commissioner, the Conflict of Interest Act prohibits public office holders -- including parliamentary secretaries -- from using their position to influence decision making and the CRTC is a quasi-judicial tribunal meant to operate at arm's length from government.

"It is improper for you to have written a letter of support to a tribunal in relation to its decision-making," states the compliance order. "Writing such a letter would be improper regardless of whether or not you explicitly identified yourself as a parliamentary secretary."

On the same day of Mr. Carrie's order, a similar order was issued to Mississauga-Brampton South MP Eve Adams, who wrote a letter to the CRTC in support of a Brampton radio station.

Earlier this month, the ethics commissioner ruled Whitby-Oshawa MP and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty violated the Conflict of Interest Act when he, too, wrote a letter to the CRTC in support of Durham Radio Inc.'s application.

Reporter Reka Szekely covers the City of Oshawa for Metroland Media Group’s Durham Region Division. Reka's social media column appears every other week. Contact her on Facebook, Twitter (@rszekely)